


Separation of Power

by EmeraldPhoenix1221



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Background Ty Lee/Azula, Dialogue Heavy, Gen, Minor Mai/Zuko, Not Compliant with Avatar Comics, Zuko (Avatar)-centric, background Aang/Katara - Freeform, mid-Recovery Azula
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 15:09:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29227497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmeraldPhoenix1221/pseuds/EmeraldPhoenix1221
Summary: Plagued by recurring nightmares of another war started by the Fire Nation, Zuko seeks a way to lessen the chances of something like the Hundred Year War happening again - even if that means changing the very structure of the Fire Nation's government and making enemies out of his more vocal critics in the process.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9
Collections: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Discord Community Archive





	Separation of Power

_ It always started with the ash. _

_ It fell from the sky like a grey snow, coating rooftops and roads. _

_ Zuko could never place exactly what city he found himself in - the architecture was an incoherent blend of cultures, and the people much the same. It may have been somewhere in the United Republic. _

_ He supposed it didn’t really matter what city was being attacked. _

_ What mattered was the attacker. _

_ He could smell the faint, acrid fumes of the Fire Nation ironclads, just barely hear the low, droning hum of the airships, and almost feel the metallic rattling of the tanks. People around him moved to get to shelter, to shield children and the elderly, while soldiers rushed past to man the defenses. He didn’t move; he never did. The nightmare wasn’t quite lucid, though he could watch it all. _

_ All he could  _ ever  _ do was watch. _

_ Powerless. _

_ When and where the first incendiary projectile struck seemed to be random - but it always struck. _

_ This time, it clipped the outer wall, setting the wooden ramparts ablaze and sending flaming oil into the city, starting a half dozen fires and wounding several soldiers and civilians. The stench of burning flesh, as bad as it was, was nothing particularly new, but the screams… _

_ Spirits, the screams… _

_ He could never get used to the screams. Screams he let out once. The kind that shred the vocal cords - the kind that don’t sound human. _

_ The screams didn’t stop the attack. The artillery barrage continued, the war machine outside unfazed by the suffering it wrought. _

_ The airships, small but powerful, made passes by the towers, firing jets of orange fire and blowing them to smithereens. A boulder from one was able to find its mark and take one airship down, but another just as quickly took its place. _

_ Smoke was everywhere now, cutting visibility to near zero. Zuko saw a bright light come from the other side of the imposing stone wall, accompanied by the thunderous roar of a fireball. _

_ Seconds later, a massive explosion blew a gaping hole in the wall, sending chunks of stone, debris, and people flying. A group of earthbenders ran to defend the opening. _

_ They were swiftly met by a trio of tanks. _

_ The first was skewered by a jagged spire of rock, and the others were forced to swerve away, but kept firing blasts of flame at the soldiers and into the city. An earthbender had his leg grazed by one and dropped to the ground, where the rest of his body was reduced to a charred, bloody mess by successive blasts. _

_ Another tank was disabled, this time by a waterbender - encased in ice and pierced by dozens of frosty spikes. _

_ More tanks poured through the opening, followed closely by armored personnel carriers. _

_ Zuko felt his heart drop. Those hadn’t been used in the War. Those had just been developed. Those had been developed under his reign. _

_ Infantry followed the armored spearhead into the breach. The first wave met a quick end on the swords, rocks, and ice blades of the defenders, but were followed by the shock troops - firebenders all. _

_ They wore masks specialized to filter out smoke and soot, made to look like skulls.  _ That _ was distinctly War-era. _

_ Supported by the tanks, the benders tore through the opposing line, leaving screaming, bloody, burning men in their wake.  _

_ One young man - he couldn’t have been more than 16 - took a crossbow bolt to the stomach. He doubled over, blood oozing from his mouth as he dropped his spear and shield. His legs gave out, but he was struck by a fire blast to the chest and part of his head before he hit the ground. He flipped over, coming to a rest on his burned side, the wounds barely visible. Blood and bile continued to flow out of his mouth, and he was still breathing, but his eyes were glassed over, reflecting the fire and explosions. _

_ The wall had been breached in other places, and the defending forces were all but routed. Bombs continued to fall from the airships and tanks leveled entire buildings to eliminate holdouts. Everything was on fire. _

_ Suddenly, Zuko was overcome by a deafening ringing noise, as if he had just taken a massive hit to the head. He brought his attention to the breach, where he caught sight of a silhouette wearing royal armor and the traditional hairpiece of the Firelord. _

_ The figure walked through the flames and burning bodies. _

_ Sometimes, he found his own face staring back at him. Sometimes it was his father. Other times, it had been Azula. Even his Uncle. _

_ Now? The face changed and morphed, accompanied by an inhuman laugh. _

_ The fire and chaos all swirled around and disappeared behind the faceless entity. It was left with him in a void. A face materialized, finally. _

_ But it was the face of a woman he didn’t quite know. The eyes were completely black, and- _

_ His breath caught. _

_ No - he didn’t know her. _

_ Not yet. _

_ “I- Izumi?” he heard himself ask. _

_ The figure tilted its head to the side. When it spoke, it spoke with the voice of his five year old daughter. _

_ “Do you think it runs in the family?” _

_ The thing raised its right hand to his scar, and blinding pain shot through his body as flame flashed across his vision, he screamed that inhuman scream…  _

Zuko jolted upright, in a cold sweat. He calmed his ragged breath and looked around carefully.

He was in the master bedroom in the palace. Mai lay on the bed to his left, he assumed still asleep. The shades of the windows were open, and the half moon lit the room softly.

Moving slowly so as not to wake his wife, he got out of bed, threw on a robe, and walked over to the window. He stared out over the lights of the city.

“That same nightmare again?” came Mai’s voice from the bed.  _ So much for not waking her. _

He looked back; she was still on her side facing the other way. “Yeah.”

There was a rustling as she sat up and rubbed her eyes, brushing some of her slightly disheveled hair behind one ear. She scratched her head as she looked over at him with a soft expression. He couldn't help but smile at how beautiful she looked, even then. “I know I’m not always much help, but - do you wanna talk about it?”

"You're always a help. But…” He turned back to the window and sighed. “I don’t know.”

Mai yawned. “Well, you better make up your mind soon, because I’m not getting up again.”

He gave a short, soft laugh, then paused. “This one was different.”

“Different how?”

“The figure at the end. It was Izumi.”

Mai smiled, the hint of a laugh creeping into her voice. “It took the form of our five year old, three foot tall daughter?”

While Zuko recognized and appreciated the attempt to lighten the mood, he made no effort to indulge it. He turned around to face Mai, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “No. It was still roughly my height, but the face was hers, only… older. I know in my gut it was her, though. It spoke with her voice, anyway.” He swallowed a lump in his throat. “Sounded just the same as it did when we tucked her in.”

“It… doesn’t usually talk, does it?” He shook his head. She now seemed unnerved herself, which was saying something. “What did it say?”

Zuko kept his gaze fixed on the bed, though he wasn’t really looking at it. “It said, ‘Do you think it runs in the family?’”

Mai closed her eyes and nodded. It wasn't a new fear, and it was one he'd discussed at length with her (and others) before. He had been - still was, to be completely honest - afraid half to death of becoming his father. He'd never feared the same for their daughter, at least not consciously.

Mai slid out of bed and made her way around to him. “Zuko… it didn’t happen to you. It won’t happen to Izumi.” She moved behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist, putting her chin on his shoulder.

He looked at her with a pained expression. "You sound so sure."

She pulled away and spun him around to face her. Looking deep into his eyes, she cradled his face in both her hands. Her right hand lay across his scar, a gesture only a precious few could get away with and even fewer had ever tried. "Because she's our daughter."

She smiled softly. He smiled back as she pulled him into a kiss, then rested her head against his chest. After a few moments, the door to the room creaked open.

"Mom? Dad?"

"Over here, sweetheart," Mai called.

The door swung open further, revealing a bleary eyed Izumi. She held her stuffed sky bison, Clumpy, close to her with her left arm while she rubbed her eye with her right hand. The family cat, Kura, circled around her legs and meowed.

"I had a nightmare."

"Oh, I'm sorry…" Mai said as she left Zuko's embrace and went to sit on the edge of the bed; he followed and sat down next to her. She opened her arms to Izumi. "Come here."

Izumi practically fell into her mother’s hug, with both her arms holding Clumpy to her chest. Zuko joined in, wrapping his arms around both of them and resting his chin on Mai’s head. Kura hopped up onto the bed, purred, and squeezed her way in between the three of them. After a while, Izumi pulled away and sniffled; Mai softly tapped her nose with her index finger and let out a small ‘boop’ and a grin. Zuko suppressed a laugh as Izumi giggled. 

Raising Izumi had brought out a side of Mai that he had rarely seen before. Her dour, almost abrasive, demeanor melted away when the two were together, especially when it was just the two (or three) of them. It was a far cry from the way she’d been raised, and Zuko knew that was the point; they were both doing whatever they could not to repeat the mistakes of their parents.

“Did Clumpy help you to not be scared?” Mai asked, indicating the stuffed animal.

Izumi held it out in front of her, then lowered it. “He was scared, too.”

"You know, I had a nightmare, too," Zuko said.

Izumi looked up at him, then back down as she furrowed her brow in thought. Suddenly, she lifted Clumpy up and out in front of her, handing the animal to him.

Zuko laughed. "I think it's better if Clumpy stayed with you. But thanks."

Izumi returned the stuffed animal to its place close to her chest. She looked back and forth between him and Mai. "Could I spend the rest of the night with you guys?"

"Of course." Mai's response came almost immediately.

As the three settled into bed, a quizzical meow came from the edge of the bed.

"Yes, you too," Zuko said in the cat's general direction.

A content trill came in reply.

**Author's Note:**

> So, the 'Alternate Universe - Canon' tag seemed a little weird, but I decided to slap it on here. My reasoning being that the universe I'm writing in differs in some key ways, but nothing that I think requires a massive divergence in canon to be the case. (I also don't really want to do a deep dive into the lore to make sure of everything fitting together with established 'canon').
> 
> Also, 'not compliant with the comics' because I haven't finished reading them yet (not even close, actually), and the aforementioned differences sorta contradict some of that stuff. I didn't want to be limited in crafting narratives, so while the gist of some of the comics' plots may still have happened, it's in more of a... I don't know, "blurry" sense?


End file.
